Conor Daly talks about his big Indy practice crash

Daly handles his first big impact at Indy with the humor of an old pro.

It took until 2:30 P.M. on the sixth day of practice for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 for the first crash to take place. Unfortunately, it involved our guest columnist for the month of May, rookie driver Conor Daly.

The fact that it took so long for 30-plus Indy cars swirling around Indy's daunting 2.5-mile oval to make contact with the wall is a testament to the increased professionalism of the drivers, teams and engineering work done throughout pit lane.

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It wasn't so long ago that crashes were a regular occurrence at Indy as drivers and teams of questionable pedigree destroyed cars against the wall. But crash frequency in recent years has diminished as chassis setups have undergone continuous refinement.

With Daly, a change to stiffer rear springs on his A.J. Foyt Racing/ABC Supply Dallara Honda likely caught the 21-year-old as he streaked down the front straight and turned into the first corner at approximately 227 mph.

If you're new to IndyCar racing and the Indy 500, it's worth pausing to reflect on how insane that scenario happens to be.

Daly, a rookie with years of impeccable training in the lower open-wheel categories—the equivalent of playing college ball at a Division I school—is working to learn the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while also trying to find more speed in his Indy car. With equal measures of talent and confidence at his disposal, Daly rockets into Turn 1 and finds the setup change to his car's rear has caused it to start sliding.

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Next time you're impressed with a video of some dude in a Nissan S14 with a monster RB26 drifting through a parking lot, imagine what it's like to be traveling the equivalent of a football field every second and find out your car just started drifting without you asking it to do so.

So Daly, with his hands moving at light speed, tries to catch the 227-mph slide and does so. Initially. But then the car regains traction momentarily while pointing at the wall and Daly tries to catch it again.

By now, there's no hope of keeping the car off the wall, but because he's fought it the entire way—all in fractions of a second—Conor clobbers the barrier flush, flattening the right side of the car, which absorbs most of the impact. In terms of what you'd want to have happen in a crash at that speed, was perfect.

This is another testament to modern Indy car safety, where a driver meeting a solid object at 227 mph hops out of the car under his own power and sits in his team garage wishing he had another car to jump into and continue his practice laps.

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In another interesting twist, despite the massive crash, Daly's car will be wheeled out to run tomorrow. Granted, it'll take a long night of work by the veteran Foyt team, and will cost about as much as two brand-new Corvette ZR1s to replace the destroyed suspension, brakes, wheels, bodywork, radiator and gearbox, but Indy cars are designed with crashes and repairs in mind.

Watch the video and let Daly tell you the rest—he's honest to the core and a scrappy kid who just wants to keep racing. After getting mauled by a lion, the natural reaction is to avoid lions. Daly, like most IndyCar drivers, can't wait to get back in the cage and lock the door behind him.